FPS has dropped to half and don't know why....PLEASE HELP!!

[RaineMagus]

Assuming no hardware issues: Make sure that you have the latest chipset drivers installed. This is something VERY often overlooked that can explain large performance differences between a fresh install of an OS with the same hardware as before, and an old install.

*Essentially your PCI-E controller / bus may be operating underspeed, choking your GPU and resulting in the poor performance that you're seeing right now. (the controller running at 1-2 lane mode instead of 8-16 can absolutely decimate performance)



If installing chipset drivers is something you've already attempted, if it did nothing to improve performance, and "if" that machine is Intel, try using the "-OVERALL" command line argument
Aka, "infinst_autol.exe -OVERALL"


Should you attempt the -overall argument, note that it's generally best to do this from safemode to minimize the chance of a lockup / something going wrong during the driver swap.



As a starting point, I'd recommend checking what speed your PCI-E bus is actually operating at under load (in FFXIV:ARR). Tools like GPU-Z can display this information.
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Also, don't get dismayed if you see a low speed "on the desktop" before stressing your GPU. [Power-management can throttle back the bus rate] Check your motherboard manual to get an idea what the speed of the slot your Radeon 7870 should be running at ... though if you see 1x, 2x, 4x, that's the problem and why FFXIV is performing so poorly.



EDIT: Re-reading your post strengthens my belief that this is the cause even more, as you can pretty much count on the "tech-person" who reinstalled the OS not doing the above (they pretty much never do more than the video-drivers). So yeah .... definitely give motherboard chipset driver installation a try first and foremost.

[LilPhist]

Make sure your GPU is plugged into its own power source from the PSU. A GPU without enough power performs poorly. Same goes for a laptop. Make sure your laptop is plugged into a power source. Running off battery will destroy your FPS.

[scruffyotter]

Assuming no hardware issues: Make sure that you have the latest chipset drivers installed. This is something VERY often overlooked that can explain large performance differences between a fresh install of an OS with the same hardware as before, and an old install.

*Essentially your PCI-E controller / bus may be operating underspeed, choking your GPU and resulting in the poor performance that you're seeing right now. (the controller running at 1-2 lane mode instead of 8-16 can absolutely decimate performance)



If installing chipset drivers is something you've already attempted, if it did nothing to improve performance, and "if" that machine is Intel, try using the "-OVERALL" command line argument
Aka, "infinst_autol.exe -OVERALL"


Should you attempt the -overall argument, note that it's generally best to do this from safemode to minimize the chance of a lockup / something going wrong during the driver swap.



As a starting point, I'd recommend checking what speed your PCI-E bus is actually operating at under load (in FFXIV:ARR). Tools like GPU-Z can display this information.
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

Also, don't get dismayed if you see a low speed "on the desktop" before stressing your GPU. [Power-management can throttle back the bus rate] Check your motherboard manual to get an idea what the speed of the slot your Radeon 7870 should be running at ... though if you see 1x, 2x, 4x, that's the problem and why FFXIV is performing so poorly.



EDIT: Re-reading your post strengthens my belief that this is the cause even more, as you can pretty much count on the "tech-person" who reinstalled the OS not doing the above (they pretty much never do more than the video-drivers). So yeah .... definitely give motherboard chipset driver installation a try first and foremost.

ok thanks for the feedback...I'm going to try that app.

also I *think* i might've already fixed it:
I uninstalled the video driver (which was current) and then reinstalled it again.
THIS time I ran FRAPS and lo and behold I was getting my normal FPS back!
I even teleported to places with lots of people and it held up!

I'm not sure about mobo chipset drivers. is that a BIOS thing? how would I check whats there and if it needs an update? when I do Windows Update it doesn't show anything critical to install....
??


thanks

[scruffyotter]

ok well I was getting some good numbers with FRAPS, but when I ran the benchmark again, I got 5215......my original score that I got when I first installed my new 2gb video card was 8301(!!!)

so I dunno what else I need to do to get my score back up with the current hardware I have....

[RaineMagus]

I'm not sure about mobo chipset drivers. is that a BIOS thing? how would I check whats there and if it needs an update? when I do Windows Update it doesn't show anything critical to install....

Windows Update unfortunately doesn't really distribute these. You'll come out of the box with "something" pre-installed on the machine from the get go (off the installation disk for the OS), yet these drivers are Microsoft provided 'generics' and tend not to yield the best performance [especially on modern motherboards].


I'm "guessing" from your CPU speed that you have something like a gen 1 Core i7 920, or say an i5 750. Either way you *may* have an x58 motherboard, yet I'm just guessing really.


Assuming it's an Intel:
--Per where to download chipset drivers, you can get them either straight from Intel or from your motherboard manufacturer's site (eg, ASUS, Gigabyte, Tyan, etc). Here's a direct link off Intel's site. (again on the assumption that this is an Intel chip board)

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/2077...inst_autol.exe



You could run the above installer with the -overall argument to force driver replacement, and that'd "probably" get you up-to-date.. While attempting to install the chipset drivers on a non Intel chipset board "shouldn't" hurt anything ... I'd still highly suggest checking your mobo's manual first.

If you don't want to check the manual, or don't know what your motherboard is, CPU-Z can 'usually' (depending bios) tell you what your board and chipset are. [It's shown under the 'mainboard' tab]


Link to that tool for your reference:
http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html


Far as BIOS, I'd honestly avoid doing a bios flash unless you're feeling adventurous. This is one of those things where the payoff in performance is usually near zero, and the main incentive is to update for stability issues or hardware compatibility (as in a card, CPU, memory, etc not being properly recognized).